Centura by Corning

[peterh770]

Picked up a some white Centura china at an estate sale today because I was looking for some plain white china and I thought this was a reasonable deal ($20):
8 dinner plates
5 luncheon plates
2 desert plates
8 coffee cups
7 saucers
sugar bowl (no lid?) and creamer
1 ??? plate (that goes under a pitcher of sorts, slightly bigger than a dessert plate with a 1/2" rim?)

Do any of you collect this?

 

[polkanut]

The plate with the 1/2" rim may be an underplate for a gravy boat. Check Replacements.com to help you identify the pattern you have, and the piece in question.

 

[peterh770]

I really don't want these coffee cups and saucers. If anyone would like them, please let me know...

 

[gansky1]

Corningware for the table - but not the microwave!

Picture please. I'll show you my Centura if you show me yours

It sounds like one of the rimmed plates you have may be a later style of Centura, is it marked differently on the bottom? Someone else can fill in the details a little better but IIRC, the factory that produced Centura burned to the ground and most all of the original molds were lost. Post-fire styles were a bit different and "updated" with more square sided bowls, rimmed plates, etc. There were many, many different patterns available through the years but I've never seen a complete list. This one at Correlle Corner is pretty good - some I've never seen in person.

Hopefully you haven't already learned the hard way but the Centura is typically not microwave safe unless it's marked on the bottom. That's about the only thing I don't like about these dishes, they still are some of my all-time favorite shapes and sizes. You'll use the luncheon plates probably as much as the other two sizes combined.

I have service for roughly 100 in the Centura Coupe (not cups and saucers, I don't need those either) When we had the vacuum convention here in '07, none of the 80 people needed a foam plate for dinner. My grandmother had the Cornflower pattern for her "good" dishes and I still have them but I've added "a few" since. I've given away as much as I have, mom has a set, John L. got a box as well as a few other friends. Rarer pieces of the set are the buffet servers, coffee pots and oddly enough, the berry & dessert bowls seem rather rare. The wide-rimmed pasta bowls are outstanding and get used constantly here but can be hard to stumble upon by chance and somewhat spendy to buy on ebay, etc. Centura is still common enough that you can find what you need pretty easily without resorting to buying from the dealers and Replacements.com though those places can be great for education about different lines, pieces, etc. I have both White Coupe and the Cornflower, as well as some odd-pattern pieces I've found here and there.

It's a sickness. Really, you can't shake this virus, just give in :-D

 

[peterh770]

LOL! I have given up hoarding, but I do lapse now and then (wait until I post about the next lapse). The pics for this estate sale showed plain white dishes, and I was hoping for simple Corelle. But it is Centura. So out came the Visa, and it all came home. It didn't help that the nice lady running the sell kept asking me if she could "wrap it up" while I looked through the rest of the house.

I have one square side bowl (assuming soup/cereal) and one small side bowl (assuming desert). Not for nothing, people must have cursed a blue streak the first time they tried to load these into the dishwasher (THEY DON'T FIT!!!). The sugar and creamer appear to match this. The logo is exactly the same on all pieces -- no "microwave safe". Upon closer inspection, the dishes are lightly scratched, with these rust spots on the underside. I guess I got duds -- some well used duds...


I guess I have some pics to take and some research to do...

 

[veg-o-matic]

Oh, yeah

You just can't have too much Cornflower Centura! All of mine has come from either the Goodwill or the Sally Ann.

I put mine in the microwave all the time with no ill results. Way back when, Consumer Reports said not to ever put it on a hot stove burner because it would explode.

veg

 

[laundromat]

I grew up with the all white set and my Grandmother whom we called "Mado" bought them a The Hecht Company around 1964. I got home from school and she handed me one of the coffee cups telling me,insisting that I throw it on our tiled floor.I did and it bounced about but never broke. I was puzzled and surprised. then, my sister got home and,again,Mado handed her the coffee cup and,sure enough,it bounced but did not break.Then,my brother got home. Mado handed him the coffee cup and told him, as she did me and my sister earlier, to throw it on the floor. He did,it broke in smithereans and three of the four of us stared in amazement at what just happened. Evidently, Mado was told that,if it did break,she could bring back the remains and get a replacement free.I think my brother or sister still has the originals (Or what's left of them) in their home.

 

[roto204]

Corelle

We used to study that break/not break effect in our physics courses. The explanation was that the first bounce creates an interference wave that propagates across the plate/cup/whatever, and subsequent bounces can set off waves in other directions. Sometimes you get lucky--sometimes you don't. If you were like me, you always wondered why it bounced on the first landing and shattered on the second.

If you ended up with a constructive wave convergence in just the right place at just the right time, crack!

 

[lordkenmore]

Centura definitely can break. My parents had some when I was growing up, which we used for daily use. Something or other would break every so often. In fact, until this thread came up, I had never thought of it as "unbreakable."

Although, I do recall one time when I was small I thought it would be fun to hide in the corner and jump out and say "Boo!" My poor father was actually shocked enough to drop the Centura plate he was carrying. It hit the floor, but didn't shatter.

 

[MikeS]

Centura Ads

Back in 1964-65, Corning ran a great ad campaign showing a bull in a china shop, bumping into one display after another--of course, the displays were filled with Centura tableware, as the announcer points out the three-year guarantee against breakage. It won a Cleo Award (the Oscars of the ad industry), and I have a tape of a message by then-"Today" show host Hugh Downs and his cohorts talking to Corning dealers about the Centura campaign and live demonstrations on "Today" planned for the spring of 1965.

 

[laundromat]

yea but when those things broke, they shattered into billions of tiny pieces and were hard to sweep up the entire amount in one sweep.Almost like a fine powder.I remember too the percolators they made and had a major call back on because their glued on handles would come right off. If you weren't careful,you could get severely scolded by the hot coffee spilling all over you.

 

[gansky1]

I've used Centura for years and it certainly can break. Usually the pieces are large but it depends on how it breaks. If it falls onto the granite counter, it can shatter into many small pieces but onto a wood floor or a drop onto other dishes, usually it's just a couple of pieces. Though certainly breakable it doesn't chip as easily as other materials and is extremely durable. Time and use will eventually reveal scratches on the surface of the dishes and it's just as susceptible to scratching & gray flatware marks as most other materials. I heard once that the stainless flatware was worn out when you started to see those marks on your dishes, but that's another thread-question.

 

[polkanut]

Greg,

If flatware is worn out when you start seeing gray marks & scratches, then my Riviera flatware in the Cordova pattern from circa 1972 should be trashed! lol I've never heard that about dishes and flatware, interesting.

 

[laundromat]

I never thought about it but---------

----- I truly am interested in finding out if the 4+1 Corning ceramic top range tops were actually made of the same durable blend that Correlle Living wear is made of?????

 

[maytagbear]

Metal markings on ceramics

just means that the ceramic is harder than the metal. A little Bon Ami powder, water, and rubbing, and the marks go away.

I've never had Centura, but I have had LOTS of Corelle during the years. Corelle is a laminated glass.

Ma got us the "Butterfly Gold" right after the cup handle changed to the open style. I got so heartily SICK of the stuff, that after about the 20th year, I begged her to let me donate most of it to Goodwill! We then used a stoneware set that was a supermarket premium. Then, when she wasn't looking, I got the new Fiesta of my dreams.

What freaks me out big time about Corelle is that most of it is available at REPLACEMENTS! (At Replacements prices, admittedly, but......)

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[gansky1]

It's Dinnerware Transition Day again so I snapped a couple of shots of the Centura as I was moving dishes around. This is a sampling of the sets and odd bits I have. I didn't dig out all of the buffet service and coffee pots today but perhaps over the holidays they'll make an appearance, I brought home a shallow casserole dish a few weeks ago so we'll have to make use of it. Terry will fill it up for sure!

 

[gansky1]

The Corning Headquarters plate standing in back is Pyroceram by Corning, the Centura name had been dropped by that time and it is a bit different glass.

 

[gansky1]

Two and a half dishwasher loads!

The top of the KitchenAid has serving bowls - one gold-banded and two of the blue "flower". The White Coupe is what I'm using for everyday use. I've found far more of those than anything else.

 

[combo52]

CENTURA DISHES BY CORNING

We had the Lamba car club holiday party at my house last night and served about 80 people dinner. We used the roughly 50 Centura dinner plates plus the everyday Corell dishes, It all translated into about 12 loads of dishes in the WP and two KA dishwashers. My mom has been using her Centura for years as her everyday dishes and it will diffidently break if placed in the microwave oven, she has lost many pieces that way. But overall I think its great stuff I am always on the lookout for it at sales and of coerce Greg N helped out a lot.